Additive manufacturing (equivalently referred to herein as “AM”) is the broad term encompassing computer assisted 3-D printing techniques. The term “3-D printing” originally referred to a process that deposits a binder material onto a powder bed with inkjet printer heads layer-by-layer. More recently, the term is being used in popular vernacular to encompass a wider variety of additive manufacturing techniques. United States and global technical standards use the term “additive manufacturing” in this broader sense to connote manufacturing systems for producing three-dimensional (equivalently referred to herein as “3D”) parts that are typically first fashioned digitally on a computer. For example, standard ISO/ASTM52900-15 defines seven categories of AM processes within its meaning: binder jetting, directed energy deposition, material extrusion, material jetting, powder bed fusion, sheet lamination and vat photopolymerization.
The field of additive manufacturing has progressed to allow for layer-by-layer deposition of various materials. In many instances, additive manufacturing has proven useful in the manufacture of one-off parts including, for example, parts used as prototypes, or other customized parts that may or may not lead to mass production. However, the use of additive manufacturing techniques to make certain parts (e.g., load-bearing or structural parts) has not been accepted or even approved by certain standards, especially where inspections for quality and safety are required. The lack of accepted inspection techniques for additively manufactured parts, including additively manufactured parts used as load-bearing parts or other structural parts (e.g., additively manufactured parts requiring inspection and certification), has hampered the advancement of additively manufacturing structural parts.